How does bhakti shelter us amidst physical and emotional pain?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so when emotional or physical pain comes how we practice bhakti and how can bhakti give us shelter the first thing is that spiritualizing ourselves doesn’t mean dehumanizing ourselves that means at a human level pain is strong and it’s not that we have to deny the pain say if I get a fracture if I fall down I get a fracture I have a fracture now somebody else may fall down at the same situation and their bones may be tougher than mine they may not get a fracture so if I have a fracture then I have to deal with it so I may have to rest for sometime, put the leg in a cast and I appropriately deal with it similarly for us just as some people’s bones may be more vulnerable to breaking than others similarly each of us has a different mind so sometimes our mind will be more prone to a particular kind of pain than others say some of us are more sensitive and somebody just neglects us or somebody rejects us that may hurt us much more than it may hurt somebody else and that person will say why are you so sensitive don’t bother about it, it doesn’t work we have to work with the body and the mind that we have so if my mind is too sensitive to something, it is not that just by practicing bhakti it should happen that my mind should stop being sensitive but we can look at a higher purpose so that means that I got a fracture, I may have to reduce my mobility for the next one week but then I after one week I will start moving maybe there is a little pain when I put weight on the leg but gradually it will recover so if we are emotionally vulnerable and we get wounded easily then what we need to do is we have to acknowledge that we are wounded but we don’t have to perpetuate that wound perpetuate that wound means why did this person do like this why did this person do like this the wound is there sometimes as I said we go towards two extremes either we give in to the mind’s emotions or we completely deny the mind’s emotions but we can’t deny them they are there we don’t want to get carried away by them if I just keep telling why did this person do like this why did this person do like this people are so bad, nobody cares that way what we are doing is we are aggravating the wound fracture leg is there and I am putting weight on the leg it is going to get worse so what bhakti does for us is when the mind starts simply replaying the wrong that has happened and it keeps making us feel worse and worse then bhakti is meant to give us an alternative object of thought so the process of bhakti is not just about associating with devotees or chanting the holy names or coming to the temple these are extremely important but they are meant to make an inner change inner change in our default object of contemplation so instead of replaying that wrong that person did we try to become attached to Krishna and think of Krishna within Krishna bhakti we may find that like this boy, he loved keepers so at that time instead of replaying why did this girl do this to me we just start taking shelter of Krishna to keepers so when we absorb our consciousness in Krishna in a way that works easily for us then the wound that is there, it will be there but we won’t be aggravated and although the wound will be there but because we don’t think about it so much, it won’t hurt us that much if I have a fracture and I consider thinking, oh I have a fracture, I have a fracture that simply aggravates the problem that we have so life determines our problems but we determine their size life determines our problems bad things happen to all of us but how big that problem will be its size will be determined by me somebody rejects me, somebody hurts me that’s the problem but I can just take that as one incident in my life and move on or I am just repeated and think that, oh I am unloved and I am unlovable and my life is unlivable and we make it into a catastrophe also so what Krishna Prakashi does is it gives us an alternative object of thought and when we cultivate that connection with Krishna and we develop attachment to Krishna and some manifestation then at that time we take our consciousness towards that manifestation focus on that chant the holy name, hear people come to the temple, read some scriptures by that the aggravation of the injury doesn’t happen and even that injury, it is there but we allow it to heal naturally another fundamental change is not just the default object of thought but bhakti also changes our defining identity we define ourselves in various ways based on our relationships and roles in this world I think I am a software engineer I think I am an M.G.I. I think I am the wife of this person I am the husband of this person now all these roles and relationships that we have they do define us in a functional way but they are not our fundamental identity our fundamental identity is that I am a servant of Krishna I am a part of Krishna, I am a servant of Krishna and as a service to Krishna I am the husband of someone I am the wife of someone, I am an M.G.I. I am a national I am a citizen of a particular country all these are roles which I am going to function I will work irresponsibly because truly I can do my service to Krishna my relationships can also be services to Krishna but if any relationship is our defining identity if I define myself as a spouse of someone and if I experience some problem in that relationship then I feel as if who am I, what is my life worth so again the problem becomes maximized because we have invested inordinately our self identity in that relationship so bhakti gives us a secure sense of self identity I am a servant of Krishna so even if sometimes people treat us badly life treats us badly then ok I lost my job but I am not a software engineer I am a servant of Krishna I will find some other job and I will work so that both the default object of thought and the defining sense of identity they are meant to be changed by our practices of bhakti and the practices of bhakti are chanting, coming to the temple to the extent they do these two things for us to that extent we will be shielded we will get a shield from outer problems whenever troubles come, physical or mental hurts come we will be shielded internally so these focus of the consciousness on Krishna focus on our identity as servant of Krishna this will act like a shock absorber vehicle as a shock absorber gets jolt by going through a ditch the jolt is there but it is minimized so like that the jolts will be there when life’s problems come but they will be minimized because we are not too invested in that particular identity nor are we too fixated on that particular object so that way by focusing the consciousness on Krishna and our relationship with Krishna our problems in life can be minimized so I put it this way that sometimes because of our karma or whatever situation bad things happen in our life but whatever karma may get us through whatever karma may get us through Krishna will get us through we take shelter of Krishna Krishna will get us through pray to Krishna